CODEWITHSUNDEEP
arraysalgorithmsorting
noreon
noreon

Reputation: 15

Why would we need to sort an array?

This might be a silly question; for all of you who have been in this field for a while, nevertheless, I would still appreciate your insight on the matter - why does an array need to be sorted, and in what scenario would we need to sort an array?

So far it is clear to me that the whole purpose of sorting is to organize the data in such a way that will minimize the searching complexity and improve the overall efficiency of our program, though I would appreciate it if someone could describe a scenario in which it would be most useful to sort an array? If we are searching for something specific like a number wouldn't the process of sorting an array be equally demanding as the process of just iterating through the array until we find what we are looking for? I hope that made sense.

Thanks.

This is just a general question for my coursework.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 556

Answers (2)

user1196549
user1196549

Reputation:

Sorting brings useful structure in a list of values.

In raw data, reading a value tells you absolutely nothing about the other values in the list. In a sorted list, when you read a value, you know that all preceding elements are not larger, and following elements are not smaller.

So to search a raw list, you have no other choice than exhaustive comparison, while when searching a sorted list, comparing to the middle element tells you in which half the searched value can be found and this drastically reduces the number of tests to be performed.

When the list is given in sorted order, you can benefit from this. When it is given in no known order, you have to ponder if it is worth affording the cost of the sort to accelerate the searches.

Sorting has other algorithmic uses than search in a list, but it is always the ordering property which is exploited.

Upvotes: 1

Vadim Beskrovnov
Vadim Beskrovnov

Reputation: 961

A lot of different algorithms work much faster with sorted array, including searching, comparing and merging arrays.

For one time operation, you're right, it is easier and faster to use unsorted array. But as soon as you need to repeat the operation multiple times on the same array, it is much faster to sort the array one time, and then use its benefits.

Even if you are going to change array, you can keep it sorted, again it improves performance of all other operations.

Upvotes: 2

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